Lean on Me video

Speaking of videos, I recently bought the DVD ($12.99 on Amazon) for both Stand and Deliver, about Jaime Escalate and his acclaimed AP Calculus program at Garfield High School in LA, and Lean on Me, about Joe Clark, the bat-and-bullhorn-wielding principal who turned around one of the worst schools in NJ.  I really enjoyed both movies.  There's one scene in Lean on Me that really struck me -- so much so that I videoed it and posted the 3-minute segment here: http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1040510. In it, Clark has gathered all of the school's teachers in the gym, tells them that most of the students at the school failed a basic skills test, has them raise both hands up and proceeds to berate them, saying:

“ ... But that is not  their failure.  I don't blame them.  The failure is yours.   That's right, yours!  How many hours do you spend preparing your lesson plans?  How often do you stay after school to give those children  -- the ones you know need it -- the extra help that they require?  Keep  your hands up.  Now you are getting a hint of the kind of hopelessness  and shame that makes those failing students throw up their hands at the thought of facing the world for which you have not prepared them.  You  are getting the barest inkling of the despair they feel when left to the mercy  of the streets.  Keep your hands up high.  Now look around at  yourselves.  Turn and look at yourselves!  Because you are failing  to educate them, this is the posture that many of our students will wind up  in, only they'll be staring down the barrel of a gun!!!"   

It's very powerful stuff.  While one side of me is uncomfortable with how he speaks to the teachers, the other side of me thinks principals should be doing a lot more of this...